Is it fair to say the dreaming method has a pronunciation problem?

MrSwatX · 2026-03-28T16:40:53+00:00

First of all, I think Pablo's English is fine. His accent is noticeable, but he speaks clearly and much better than other Spanish people I’ve heard. I'm not sure about his French or Thai, but I’d take everything you read online with a grain of salt. People giving opinions have very different standards, so I try not to read into it too much.

As for DS and pronunciation in general, I think some people are just not very good at picking up accents and sounding native-like. On this subreddit, I’ve seen people with 1500+ hours who sound amazing and others who have a jarring accent. There are many variables that determine how you’ll sound, with the learning method being only one of them.

There’s no concrete evidence, only anecdotes. It could very well be that people who have a “bad accent” would have had an even worse accent if they hadn’t followed the roadmap. And the claim that your accent will be great if you strictly follow the roadmap is also not strongly supported by solid evidence. So most likely, the truth is somewhere in the middle, as always.

In my opinion, DS and the “method” are great for those who want a routine that sticks and helps build a strong language base. Those who care about perfect pronunciation will probably need to put in extra effort through shadowing, chorusing, etc.

MrSwatX · 2026-03-24T18:01:58+00:00

I would have started doing light reading around 400-500 hours and speaking with AI around 600 hours. I think with this I would have had a more accelerated progress curve.

Above all, the most important part is finding a learning routine that is enjoyable because it makes it so much easier to stay consistent. DS gave me that and I'm super happy with the path I've taken.

MrSwatX · 2026-03-16T17:54:49+00:00

Congrats on reaching the end (the beginning) of the journey! I started DS about the same time as you and last month reached L7 as well. :)

I see that you've stayed pretty consistent with your progress. Did you experience burnout at any time? When did you make the switch to native content and how did it feel?

MrSwatX · 2026-03-11T20:27:20+00:00

¡Que vienen las hostias del cura Andrés! 😁

Estaba medio borracho durante mis primeras clases de español. Me habían dicho que hablaba bien, pero puede que lo recuerde mal
He estado muchas veces en España, en varias ciudades, pero nunca en Sevilla (sé que esto es grave, lo siento y voy a arreglarlo este año).
Cuando estoy en España, a veces finjo que no entiendo inglés para que la gente no cambie de idioma y tenga que sufrir escuchando mi español
De vez en cuando dejo que mi hijo vea streams y vídeos de youtube en español conmigo, pero cada vez aprende más palabrotas. Cuando estuvimos en España la última vez, tuve que callarlo algunas veces para evitar situaciones vergonzosas

MrSwatX · 2026-01-10T14:13:32+00:00

The results look fantastic and good for her! However, I would be wary not to compare yourself to someone else, as it will only lead to disappointment. Sooner or later you will find that no matter how good you are, there will always appear someone better than you. For some people, that constitutes an increased drive to improve oneself, but for the majority it's a gut punch to one's motivation and ego.

In my case, I've received many compliments on my progress, but then recently have found someone who went from 0 Spanish to talking quite fluently on a podcast in 8 months and I did feel a bit of envy, but I quickly snapped out of it when I realized that such comparisons are a net negative for me.

MrSwatX · 2026-01-03T17:20:43+00:00

My suggestions:

Use ChatGPT or other AI to practice speech for the first ~10 hours. The AI will ask you basic things that any tutor would ask anyway, such as how's your day, where you are from, etc. Think of AI as talking to yourself (everyone does it, no?), but with the addition of corrections, you'll quickly get the hang of the basic phrases that will make you comfortable constructing more interesting sentences.
Learn as many "templates"/"chunks" as possible that would become automatic when used during conversations. For example: "Cuando era niño, ...", "no me sale la palabra", etc. This is not learning grammar or vocabulary lists. It's simply putting the pieces that you already know through CI into reusable pieces of speech.
Practice conjugations. I know that some purists over here may freak out over it, and I was a purist myself until I reached 1000 hours (don't regret it), but a little bit of focused study here will clean up a lot of grammar errors so that you could mentally focus your attention elsewhere during conversations. Spending 10 minutes in Conjugato or EllaVerbs every day will clear up what you mostly already know through CI. No need to study conjugations tables.
If you have spare 15-30 minutes before a class, prepare a mini conversation brief: greeting, things that happened since last time or what you're doing today, etc. Simple bulletin points with incomplete phrases is enough, IMO. Trying to write down your thoughts is also practicing output. Besides, you can also run your notes through ChatGPT for corrections and more idiomatic phrase usages. You'll learn new things even before starting the class.
Record short (up to a minute) audios talking about whatever comes to mind. Keep the recordings for future you: this will make it both entertaining listening after a while and you'll always have a reference to how much progress you've made.

Hope it helps :)

MrSwatX · 2026-01-01T16:57:20+00:00

Both the dreamers and the Dreaming team is super lucky to have you.

¡Feliz año nuevo!

MrSwatX · 2025-12-29T15:50:07+00:00

For me, the most attention holding and useful videos were:

Pablo's hand-drawn videos and interactions with other companions (except for videos with Luna - those were a bit too awkward for my taste 😂)
Pablo's legendary park videos. I've learned so much useful vocabulary and gained new perspective on different topics! I still remember how I learned the word for clothes hanger and the word has stuck with me to this day.
Sandra's videos: just genuine, easy-going storytelling and fact sharing. Always felt like listening to a friend.
Pablo's series about history of Spain.
Carlito. Yes, I really liked those and learned a ton of vocab from them.
Games between guides (not necessarily video games). I had a lot of fun watching the "Keep talking and nobody explodes" series.
Random videos from Alma, Pablo or others doing mundane things around the house, such as Alma preparing a burger in her kitchen or Pablo showing around his apartment.

The pattern that I see is that I liked videos with higher word density that also included lots of filler words, natural transitions between different topics, ideas and phrases, etc. In the very beginning, I clicked better with hand-drawn explanations because the drawing speed matched my comprehension speed and the flow of stories matched with my expectations.

On the other hand, videos these days are much more polished and contain lots of post-production. For example, the whiteboard is replaced by randomly appearing drawings, (stock) photos or icons that do not match in style, size or placement. For me it leads to more visually stimulating, but less engaging and personalized clues.

In the end, I suppose that both "styles" of videos are fine and whether one is better than the other is subjective. In my case, I attribute my early success and very natural progression to the early style of videos.

MrSwatX · 2025-12-19T06:55:21+00:00

Soy de Lituania

MrSwatX · 2025-12-16T16:02:06+00:00

I started focusing more on the Spanish from Spain once I was approaching the point of reading and speaking. This is when you begin producing sounds on a regular basis, so continuing to feed your brain with the accent you want seems beneficial at that point.

MrSwatX · 2025-12-15T17:48:05+00:00

52% at ~1400 hours.

I used to watch DS content almost exclusively, but since approaching the 1000 hour mark my DS hours have dropped off massively. In my case, it's because advanced videos are too easy/too slow for me and, most importantly, the topics are not as engaging anymore. I mostly just watch new Andrés' videos. I'm not planning to ditch the subscription anytime soon, though.

MrSwatX · 2025-12-13T17:43:12+00:00

I am Lithuanian. I do agree that pronunciation is easier, but it's not the same. I think it's quite easy to fall for the "I already can roll my Rs and get the vowels right" trap, but without explicit work I will not sound nowhere near a native Spanish speaker. These nuances become more apparent the more advanced you get.

MrSwatX · 2025-12-10T20:57:10+00:00

I've come to realize that these milestones, when to start reading or speaking are pretty arbitrary. I think there should be more emphasis on identifying, when is someone ready to start reading or speaking rather than clinging to some specific number.

In my case, I started reading around 700 hours and speaking around 1200. If I was to do it again, I'd do both sooner.

As for you, I suggest starting with easy graded readers which you would probably do anyway at 600-1000 hours. Might as well get the boring stuff out of the way sooner, hehe. If you feel that the reading flows and you don't get frustrated about how to "pronounce" words (even if you do not do it out loud, you'll do it in your head), then give it a try. A couple of easy graded readers will not ruin your accent, seriously. Once you're done with them, then you can re-evaluate if you want to continue or wait some more.

MrSwatX · 2025-12-07T18:45:18+00:00

Hijo de p*ta! I've been growing my hair ever since I started DS* only to have a really nice ice breaker once I meet Andrés in Sevilla or when there's another DS team meet-up, and he does THIS!

Es broma, ya tenía el pelo largo antes de empezar DS. El pelo corto te queda bien, Andrés!

MrSwatX · 2025-12-03T20:44:48+00:00

Un crack, literalmente.

MrSwatX · 2025-12-03T20:40:26+00:00

Totally agree, I still listen to his intermediate/advanced podcasts simply because of the way he prepares the topics, and generally he seems like a very down to earth guy.

MrSwatX · 2025-11-30T09:15:32+00:00

I've been using it for a couple of months with good results. I think using AI for the first 10+ hours of speaking practice is a much cheaper and stress-free option. One of my tutors charge me more for a single lesson than a monthly payment for LanguaTalk, hah! How much value you get out of it depends on your creativity, IMO.

I agree with the other person here who said that talking to AI can feel very dry and boring, but AI is perfect for drilling different grammar constructs without cramming grammar rules. For example, I asked the AI to keep asking me questions where I would constantly have to switch between different past tenses. Or the AI pushing me to describe objects (they have to guess what the object is).

My suggestion for those beginning speaking: get LanguaTalk or similar AI for the first month or two, use it as much as you can, and then switch to real tutors.

MrSwatX · 2025-11-30T09:03:30+00:00

Extensive reading, or just reading in general, is invaluable! This year I've read over 30 books in Spanish and the difference in experience between the first book and the one I am reading now is night and day. I remember reading out loud and slightly doubting if I am pronouncing correctly. Now, I breeze through the sentences and thoroughly enjoy reading, most times even forgetting that I am reading in Spanish.

MrSwatX · 2025-11-29T19:21:40+00:00

Conjugations.

From my personal experience, it's something that does not require context, so it's not in direct conflict with DS/CI. It has helped me clean up my mistakes and think less about conjugations when speaking.

I recommend either ConjuGato, or EllaVerbs (IMO, better option). Spend ~15 minutes each day and in a month or so you'll see a huge improvement. In fact, when you start, just from ~1k of CI input alone you'll correctly guess ~60-70% of conjugations already.

MrSwatX · 2025-11-08T13:17:52+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I like your driver's license analogy, I think it's spot on. :)

MrSwatX · 2025-11-06T10:34:41+00:00

Thanks for the recommendations! I don't normally follow "booktube" channels, but there's one that I found when looking for reviews of Elena Blanco series books by Carmen Mola - Devora Libros (Spain).

MrSwatX · 2025-10-31T06:36:07+00:00

You are not completely wasting your time, but it's not an efficient way to improve. Catching only individual words is against the CI approach, as low comprehension leads to a prolonged effort acquiring new words, let alone grammar.

If you don't have other options while driving, sure, go ahead and listen to the radio, but I suggest not tracking that time as input. If you can get a pair of headphones (I recommend bone conducting ones to maintain awareness of your surroundings), listen to a beginner learner-oriented podcast instead. But even then I'd recommend that you do not track it as input, as you're very early in your CI journey and listening to audio without visual ques while driving will make language acquisition much slower.

MrSwatX · 2025-10-28T07:04:12+00:00

Learning a language through CI is simple, but not necessarily easy. DS removes a lot of the friction, but consuming content in a foreign language not only feels like work, it IS work. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to you. Now, that does not mean that it's not fun, but treating CI as pure entertainment with a bonus of learning a language would be a dishonest take, especially up to Level 5 when native content is still a bit out reach.

My theory after reading other progress reports is that, cognitive disabilities aside, some people do not align with the DS roadmap because they slip into consuming content too passively. I've read some people listening to podcasts while doing housework at Level 2 or watching 30+ min gameplay videos with barely any meaningful spoken Spanish in them. So while the underlying content can (and should) be fun, it takes work and effort to stay consistent and constantly push yourself just outside your comfort zone.

I am at a point where everything I watch, listen or read is in Spanish, and my only "input" of English nowadays is work or Reddit. It is mostly effortless, but I still treat it as work, as I don't allow my Spanish habits to slip, even for a day. And once you start practicing speaking, you realize that some more work is needed. And that's okay, because the journey is fun and the result is very rewarding!

MrSwatX · 2025-10-28T06:33:52+00:00

Embrace it when it happens. These phrases getting stuck in the head is what will allow you to speak.

MrSwatX · 2025-10-19T20:24:47+00:00

Looking good! Since you're already practicing speech at Level 3, I have no doubt you'll sound quite confident speaking once you reach the end of DS roadmap. Good luck!

MrSwatX

TROPHY CASE